I remember the day well. We were teaching a seminar to a roomful of adults. Some of these adults wanted to give their kids a head start by having their children attend the seminar as well.
As an instructor, we always greatly enjoyed seeing any of our students have a life changing epiphany during the weekend. But somehow, kids touched us even more. So, secretly, they became our favorites.
Her name was Katie. She was 9 when I first met her. Sweet little girl with a smile like sunshine. But during the weekend, something started percolating within her. Something that was dimming the smile. Finally, one of the processes had her in emotional turmoil.
So, we brought her on stage. Asking about what she was going through. After about 10 minutes, she finally said what her darkest fear was. This darling little girl admitted to the whole group that her biggest fear was being murdered by a serial killer.
I remembered being her age. I don’t think I had ever heard the term serial killer. If I had, I probably would have thought they had said cereal killer. Like some animated character that eats bowlfuls of breakfast cereal in bright beautiful sweet colors.
That seminar was in 1999. Since then, we as a society have only brought more violence, hate, codependency and fear into our popular culture. We forget that what we make readily available is eagerly soaked up like a sponge by these young and fragile minds.
I don’t really have the total solution. I just choose not to watch horror movies or overtly violent movies. I may be naïve, but I don’t care. Quite honestly, if I won a 3 billion dollar lottery, I might like to buy a huge piece of land or an island. Have no Internet, no cell phones. And only allow positive, empowering, and uplifting songs, TV shows, movies and books. I would love to see where they would evolve to be in 100 years.
Katie? I lost touch with her 20 years ago. But what I did see is that she overcame that fear. And hopefully, she has retained that smile.
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